Baptism of Fire

[Gir Quee]

Union-class Colony/Assault Carrier Ocean Tide, one hundred light years away from Hast

"Atropos Aurek has successfully implanted the malware into Svarian's personal shuttlecraft," informed the ship's intelligence officer.

The hardest part of this op is over then. Once Svarian and his ships are gone, we can move in to capture Tossk and his ubese arms merchant companions. Gir rapidly punched in commands into his console to pull up the live feed from the shadowport that Aurek and Besh had hacked into before moving into their prey. He could see the stern of Svarian's Queen of the Battle along with a handful of the battleship's escorts before they jumped into hyperspace. He tapped a button on his wrist chrono. A quick glance at the star charts showed that they would have to wait fifteen standard minutes before Svarian's vessels would be out of range of the station's hypertransceiver. Normally, he wouldn't have wanted to put his hope on Tossk's ships lingering about the station to chance. However, if Besh had been able to sufficiently work its magic on the massive Lucrehulk that served as the group's transport, the ship's hyperdrive would be offline if they tried to jump away from the shadowport.

Captain Hopkins strode up to his station.

"All ships are ready to jump. Are you certain about putting so much emphasis on the Celerity for this phase of the operation?"

The two exchanged knowing glances. There was a certain dislike of utilizing untried peoples and equipment in the battlefield, and that dislike was only heightened by putting them into key positions. Yet try as he might, Gir hadn't been able to devise a better plan than to thrust the newly built star destroyer straight into battle. Gir slowly nodded in response to the captain's question before turning his attention back to his console.

 

[Gir Quee]

Celerity-class Star Destroyer Celerity, roughly forty light years away from Hast

Captain Matteus Phanan walked around the bridge of the Celerity. Like most warships recently produced by Lucerne Labs, tiered rows of consoles arose from a ground floor set with a large holo-projector, several consoles, and a small holo-tank. While Phanan couldn't fault the decision to bury the CIC-style deep within the core of the star destroyer, he found himself missing the expansive viewport of his old command, an aging Bothan Assault Cruiser, and its expansive view. In an effort to make up for that loss, he warily flipped through screens of the ship's outside cameras, finally settling on a view that displayed the handful of other Directorate ships that made up the advance detachment for the operation. His eyes rested on the alabaster hull of the Hotspur as the frigate eclipsed a distant purple and blue nebula. His contemplation of that picturesque view came to a halt as the grating voice of his ithorian communication's officer wafted through his headset.

"Director Quee has given us the green light to begin the operation."

Phanan's hazel eyes wandered across the massive bridge and the dozens of crewmen working the station. None of them seemed to be engaged in particularly urgent matters, and a quick glance at a screen displaying their workstations showed that most of them were engaged in routine work. He spared a glance at another screen of his, which displayed information about Crucible Station as provided by the Directorate's field agents and a strange source named "Jasper", which he guessed was some freelance slicer hired by Lucerne Labs. The small man toggled a button on his comlink.

"Attention crew of the Celerity, this is your captain speaking. We have just received the go ahead to jump to Crucible Station to target the Exponential Decay. This is last call for any alibis to delay jumping into the combat zone. As always, forward them through your section chief before they get to me. Otherwise, we will jump in five standard minutes."

 

[Gir Quee]

Phanan briefly paused, briefly wondering if he should tack anything on to the message. But even as that thought occurred, another one ingrained by practice and admonishment took hold of him: Show no hesitation.

"That is all."

He closed the communication channel and took off his headset to scratch his scalp. As he did so, his executive officer, a bland-looking man from Metalorn, wandered down a set of stairs towards his console. While Phanan had originally wondered how such an uninspiring-looking man had obtained a leadership position. But after several weeks of experience with him on the Celerity, he was beginning to wonder why such an efficient man wasn't in a captain's slot. Commander Teieros handed him a plain datapad.

"What's this?"

"Inventory of the ship's ammunition stores," said the Metalorn native, "I had Bairns and his team do a second check of the aft ammunition bunker. They found several dozen additional boarding rounds back there."

"Loaded with anything good?"

"H-1MEs," said Teieros, looking around the bridge, "probably some of the early trials ammunition. Nothing that will impress anyone, but potentially useful nonetheless."

Phanan scrolled through the document, "You've moved the load to the central bunker, I see."

Teieros nodded, "I thought that we didn't really have the time to delay moving them."

"Your initiatives have been well thought out," said the captain, "you just keep me informed of them."

"Yes sir."

 

[Gir Quee]

"I haven't changed my mind, by the way."

Phanan caught a hint of irritance flash across Teieros's eyes. A rare display of emotion that convinced Phanan if nothing else that Teieros wasn't some sort of droid. The man offered a stiff nod before departing towards the ship's auxiliary bridge. Phanan watched him go with a twinge of regret. He knew that his executive officer chaffed at being placed in an uneventful position that likely wouldn't see any use, but if something were to happen to the main bridge, he wouldn't want any other man to take control of the star destroyer's bridge. He turned his attention to the softly glowing consoles that dimly lit up the ship's CIC and the crewmembers around them. Most of the ship's crew appeared to be taking in the situation relatively calmly as if they had just been running a drill. Yet Phanan knew that nearly half of the crew was entirely green and untested, though he hoped that a combination of the noncoms, senior officers, and field exercises would be able to stiffen the newcomers to the point where they didn't psychologically collapse under the brunt of the battle. A hulking humanoid with a bird-like head strode over to stand next to his console. Phanan looked up at his navigator.

"You are satisfied with the plots?"

The hiitian bobbed his head up and down, "Neurel could stand to decrease his safety margins somewhat, but they were acceptable."

"Did you change them?"

The chief navigator hesitated but gruffly replying, "I have. This is not a field exercise."

"True," said Phanan, glacing at his wrist chrono, "when this is over, I expect you will continue to mentor him."

"Of course."

The ship's captain glanced at his console, "There is no sign of any reason to delay our jump. You may execute it when you are ready."

"Aye sir."

 

[Gir Quee]

The Celerity vanished into hyperspace, leaving on a trail of ionized particles in its wake. Hours would pass, and the trail would dissipate to nothingness, giving no hint to fact that they were ever there in the first place. Their ephemeral presence at the rally point, as long as it had seemed to them, had come to an end. It seemed strange to him and his crew to have felt such a mixture of intense, conflicting emotions in the middle of nowhere. Yet he had, and there would be nothing for them to really remember it by. Mere minutes passed before the Celerity flashed into realspace riding a wave of Cronau radiation specifically angled to catch the attention of the station's denizens. Phanan turned his attention to a hollow of the cobbled together space station, as seen from one of the star destroyer's starboard EPRs. A speckled array of tramp freighters, dilapidated bulk freighters, and piratical warcraft lingered around Crucible Station with such variety and numbers that Phanan was certain that not only would he not be able to tell if no two craft the same model, but he would never be able to remember the types of half of the ship's present. His eyes quickly scanned over some of the larger forms, finally settling on the distinctive shape of Tossk's Panic Attack. The Lucrehulk had barely shifted places since their last visage of it as seen from the Directorate intelligence services, but it had shifted enough for Phanan to realize that it beginning to depart in preparation for a jump into hyperspace. He cleared his voice.

"All weapons crews lock onto the Attack and fire at will," said the man, "make those shots count, engines and communication's first."

He clamped his mouth shut. I hardly needed to tell them that...but I suppose it couldn't hurt. Just as they had drilled and planned beforehand, the Celerity's weapons began to sound off as they opened up in a massive barrage against the old superfreighter. The banked Angon-class hypervelocity cannons hurled out bursts of accelerated slugs, which began to pepper the vessel's stern shields before ramming through the low-grade shields and into the hull itself. Streaks of plasma energy torpedoes and salvos of Firelance warheads joined in the gunfire in far larger numbers. Phanan watched the exhaust trails of the weapon disappear as they surged towards the tan hull of the once mighty battleship. His eyes lingered on a quartet of fiery blue bolts until they disappeared. When was the last time I have seen such massed missile fire?

 

[Gir Quee]

He couldn't recall. But as he caught his mind wandering to distant and past battles, another half of his mind pulled him back to the present. He tapped several buttons, which caused one of the ship's EPRs to zoom in on the Panic Attack's stern just as the first salvo of energy torpedoes crashed into the ship's shields. Plasma rippled out across the shield as hundreds of the warheads battered down the Lucrehulk's shields. A particularly well-timed salvo impacted one area almost simultaneously, breaching the shield just in time to allow several dozen Firelances to drill into the hull itself. Phanan could only imagine the scourge of radioactive fire being vented into the Attack's engine compartments. Images of scorched and charred flesh and machinery filled his mind. His mind recoiled from the horrific thoughts. And yet I'm the one who ordered it...A flashing icon showed up on his console's instant messenger. He tapped it to bring up an automated gunnery report propogated by data from the ship's sensors and targetting assist software. A little substandard performance compared to the drills...but apparently still good enough to get the job down...

A strained baritone voice called down to him.

"Sir, the first wave of hostiles will be on us in three minutes."

"Two more salvos from the hypervelocity cannons," said Phanan, looking up at the helmsman, "and then we can jet."

Gnisal's eyes lingered on him for several moments afterwards as if to question the decision, but the helmsman silently turned his attention back to his own station. Phanan turned his attention to the EPR footage to watch the last salvos of weapons fire smash through the shattered sections of shielding to tear away at the engines of the arms dealer's freighter. Spouts of brief fire blossomed across the freighter's stern in a vine like pattern before fading away to reveal charred cavities that led directly into the main ring-like structure of the Attack's hull. They have no more starboard engines. That should be good enough for Quee...Phanan turned his gaze upwards to Gnisal, but he could tell from the expression on the man's face that he had already sent the ship's engines to full speed ahead.

 

[Gir Quee]

Phanan flipped through several screens on his console to pull up the sensor readout. A quick glance at the tactical overlay of the FST screen showed that they were about to be swarmed by several dozen snubfighters. Not far behind them were a half a dozen cruiser-sized vessels, none of which rivaled the size of the Celerity itself. But as a group, Phanan could understand why Gnisal was jumpy. We're supposed to be as fast as them, if reality matches up to specifications...but those are two different things. He flipped through several more screens to glancing visual feeds on the oncoming cruisers, even as the space around the Celerity lit up with flashes of light as the starfighters strafed the star destroyer and the warship's point defense weaponry reacted in kind. Among the unfamiliar ships, he caught gaze of the familiar bar shape of an older Carrack-class Light Cruiser. He quickly glanced at several more angles of the same vessel as seen by different EPRs situated across the ship's hull before deciding that the ship was likely in stock form. He couldn't recall the last time he had seen such a vessel in that condition between the age of many of the vessels and the needs of many operators to upgrade their vessels to face more modern starships.

He tapped several more buttons on his console, turning the Carrack into the Celerity's primary target. With mere keystrokes, the Carrack became the object of fury for hundreds of weapons, ranging from small mass driver cannons and energy torpedo launchers to the massive hypervelocity cannons and banks of heavy warhead launchers. Lances of light and hurtling projectiles whizzed out of the star destroyer to fill the space around the carrack with deadly fire. The small warship danced among the light, wildly trying to evade the onslaught of fire. Between its small size and the rapid movements of the Celerity itself, most of the weapons fire provided little more than a brilliant light show at first. But that quickly turned as the guided munitions slammed into the carrack's aft engine block. Though the damage wrought was unimpressive by itself,the location was everything. Gouts of searing plasma filled the ship's engine rooms to errupt into space through the ship's engine nozzle's. At that sight, Phanan knew that the Celerity would claim at least one vessel. With its engines disabled, the carrack aimlessly wandered forward in a straight line, providing an easier target for the Celerity's larger weapons. Several linked bursts from the hypervelocity cannons battered down the ship's particle shields before they began to tear into the ship itself. Repeated fire smashed through the black bridge viewports before rending the ship into tangled metal chunks and clouds of debris. A brief flash of fire around the middle of the ship, which Gir guessed housed blaster gas for the turbolasers, enveloped the ship's faltering hull. But the flames quickly evaporated, leaving charred and mangled wreckage in its aftermath. But we're not out of this yet...

 

[Gir Quee]

"They're still on top of us..." whispered an inexperienced officer several seats up from Phanan.

The ship's captain briefly considered turning around to 'instruct' the officer, but quickly decided against it. I need my people to be open with me...I won't get that by constantly scolding them. [SIZE=13.3333px]Phanan flipped through several screens to pull up the sensor feeds of the Celerity's immediate surroundings. Crucible Station and the Panic Attack were quickly fading to the edges of his windows. We'll be out of firing range soon...Quee better get there in time. His eyes wandered closer to the fragmented mass of ships pursuing his own vessel. Gnisal had apparently managed the ship's coarse well enough that between their maneuvering around the debris fields and asteroids and the inherent lack of speed and agility of some of their pursuers that the firepower once arrayed against them had been cut in half. He briefly considered the pair of Dreadnaughts bringing up the rear of the enemy formation. We can pick them off by piecemeal before their heavies get here...Phanan turned his attention to his ship's shield operations chief, a young woman from Corulag.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=13.3333px]"Miss Horner, prepare to transfer energy from our ray shields to reinforce our particle shield regeneration rate."[/SIZE]

[SIZE=13.3333px]The woman's green eyes bore into his own, "Any preference to sector priorization?"[/SIZE]

[SIZE=13.3333px]Phanan briefly considered the thought, "Port side."[/SIZE]

[SIZE=13.3333px]"Got it."[/SIZE]

[SIZE=13.3333px]"Gnisal, take us to the port and use that debris field as cover. Weapons, prepare to fire on any targets of opportunity."[/SIZE]

 

[Gir Quee]

While a relatively large vessel, the Celerity was exceptionally agile for her size. Under the skillful direction of their Hiitian helmsman, the star destroyer swept forward in a banking maneuver that partially obscured the ship among a glittering debris field of junked vessels and shattered rocks. A handful of bright flashes erupted across the port side of the hull as some of the debris impacted the reinforced particle shields. A series of coordinated flashes soon followed that as the ship's hypervelocity cannons and mass drivers lashed out in synchronized salvos in an attempt to box in the lead criminal warship, an bar-shaped vessel studded with quad turbolaser turrets. Despite its speed, the pirate ship didn't appear to have a great deal of maneuverability. The lead salvos of the Celerity's fire soared past its aft, but the second set crashed into the middle of the warship, causing a column of bright red and yellow light to flare up among the ship's shields even as the vessel decelerated to navigate through the debris. Retaliatory fire leapt out from pirate ship, destroying parts of the Celerity's impromptu debris shield and pounding into the ship's shields itself.

Phanan folded his arms. We'll win any slugging match between them and us. It's only a matter of attrition. He flipped through several screens to see that the remaining pirate ships were only moments away from entering the maximum firing range. Even as he contemplated the prospect of having to add those into the slugging match, a series of notifications populated on his board, announcing the arrival of the Ocean Tide and its escorts from hyperspace to their current position almost on top of Crucible Station. Already, the mighty assault carrier had turned its heavy weapons and horde of starbombers to finish off the work that his Celerity had started. The sheer destruction wrought by that vessel was not unformidable, yet he knew that in many ways, his own Celerity was more than the match of the Director's flagship. He turned his attention back to the arriving cruisers. But if only they knew that. As if to reinforce his point, the shields on the bar-shaped pirate ship collapsed, leaving slugs and turbolaser fire alike to tear into the vessel's hull. Charred hull plating gave way into the weak interiors of the vessel, almost bisecting the craft at its midsection. The strain of the cruiser's latest maneuver continued to warp the damaged frame of the warship, and Phanan knew that the vessel was no longer a threat even before scores of escape pods began to jet away from its hull. The twisted hull now collided with the debris, obliterating some pieces of junk even while adding parts of its own superstructure to repopulate the hull.